Programs & Exhibitions
Through exhibitions, programs and partnerships we strive to be an active community resource, connecting contemporary audiences to Esherick’s brilliant creations and the beauty of the everyday.
Upcoming Events
A Musical Solstice Celebration
Paid / Ticketed
Celebrating 100 Years of Esherick's Studio
2026 marks 100 years since Wharton Esherick broke ground on his renowned Studio. The Wharton Esherick Museum will celebrate the Studio’s centennial year through a slate of exciting programming and exhibitions. With this important anniversary, we plan to honor both the physical foundation of Esherick’s building as well as the new aesthetic directions that made his act of breaking ground possible.
Current Exhibitions
Pennsylvania Modern: Regionalism and the Wharton Esherick Studio
March 1, 2026 – June 7, 2026
In 1926, Wharton Esherick broke ground on a new studio, a building that is now an icon of handcrafted modern design. The site Esherick chose was on a slope of Valley Forge Mountain, amidst sandstone outcroppings and young forests that were overgrowing old farms. There, he and a crew of tradesmen raised a stone structure with a profound sense of rootedness in local geography and architecture.
Pennsylvania Modern celebrates one-hundred years of the Esherick Studio. Drawn from the WEM collections, the exhibition presents drawings, photographs, and archives bearing witness to Esherick’s eye to the local as he began one of his most magnetic creations. With the Studio construction, Esherick participated in broad currents of regionalism that coursed through American modernism.
Imprint 2026: Groundbreaking
Imprint, our annual high school printmaking competition and exhibition, is back at the Wharton Esherick Museum for our 18th year! As we mark 100 years since Esherick broke ground on his now iconic Studio, this exhibition reflects everything we celebrate—art as a bridge between generations, techniques rooted in history, and fresh voices shaping the future. The works, submitted by talented high school printmakers, are powerful reminders that this tradition is very much alive and growing.
2026 is a milestone year not only for the Wharton Esherick Museum, but for the country as a whole as we celebrate our 250th anniversary. While we look back to celebrate traditions of making, creativity, and community, we invited students to look forward and explore the theme Groundbreaking. Wharton himself set the standard, breaking ground on bold ideas and new creative directions. Whether reflecting on personal milestones, social movements, or creative breakthroughs, we encouraged young artists to interpret Groundbreaking in ways that speak to their own experience and vision.
Recognizing the pivotal role that printmaking played in Esherick’s life, we are delighted to once again highlight young artists who represent the future of this powerful medium, with Imprint 2026: Groundbreaking. We were astounded by the skill and creativity of the submissions and send a huge thank you to all the art teachers and students who shared their work with us!
Took 21 Years by Kedar Moore of Springfield Township High School
Upcoming Exhibition
Breaking Ground: WEM’s 32nd Annual Juried Woodworking Exhibition
June 18, 2026 – September 20, 2026
For Breaking Ground, WEM’s Thirty-Second Annual Juried Woodworking Exhibition, we invited contemporary artists to take inspiration from what they consider groundbreaking, defined by any of the term’s multiple meanings. How does Wharton Esherick’s life and work seem groundbreaking in 2026 and how might this be interpreted through their practice? Whether public or personal, what ideas or shifts feel groundbreaking in this complex moment in history?
The artworks in this exhibition encourage us to consider what becomes possible when we embrace acts of breaking ground in our own lives. How might we loosen what feels settled, disrupt familiar patterns, act boldly in a world that seems to have seen everything, or imagine what might take shape once the soil has been turned? Both Wharton Esherick and the artists featured here remind us that knowing when and how to break ground requires attentiveness to the world around us, as well as to the internal impulses that signal it is time to begin building something new.
The finalists for Breaking Ground were selected by jurors Tom Loeser, a nationally renowned furniture maker and educator, and Joyce Lin, artist and sculptural furniture designer, along with Emily Zilber, WEM’s Director of Curatorial Affairs and Strategic Partnerships.
The prize winners for Breaking Ground are Christian Burchard (Ashland, OR), Haniel Wides (Somerville, MA), Terry Evans (Overland Park, KS), and Robert Aiosa (Orlando, FL). Works by these four talented artists will be on view in WEM’s Visitor Center during the run of the exhibition. The entire exhibition featuring 26 artists hosted virtually on our website. A Viewer’s Choice winner will also be selected by the public during the run of the exhibition. A catalog, showcasing each piece in the show, will also accompany the exhibition in both a print and digital form. Many of the works showcased in Breaking Ground will be available for purchase through WEM’s website and the WEM store will also feature new jewelry and home-goods made by artists featured in the exhibition.
Exhibiting Artists: Robert Aiosa, Christian Burchard, Rick Cannon, Fred Chase, Lewis Colburn, Marcus DiMaggio, Mia Donalson, Joshua Enck, Terry Evans, Russ Fogle, David Gootnick, Sonja Hackenmueller, Josh Johnson, Danny Kamerath, Mark Kobasz, Cole Messinger, Ana Neifeld, Anders Nienstaedt, George Sawyer, Wyatt Severs, Mark Sfirri, Janice Smith, Bill Stewart, Christina Vincent, Janine Wang, and Haniel Wides.
2026 WEM Artist-in-Residence: Jennifer Johnson
We are delighted to welcome Philadelphia-based artist Jennifer Johnson as the 2026 WEM Artist-in-Residence. A sculptor who works primarily in clay, Johnson creates installations about the production of history, focusing on how architecture reveals lived experience. Using ceramics, she makes models and pictures. The work, both realistic and abstract, is preoccupied with geometry, color, and metaphysics.
Johnson’s models and pictures have explored the complex history of various Philadelphia sites including Crane Arts (The Men’s Room); Glen Foerd on the Delaware (An Archive of Desire), Park Towne Place (Linger), and, most recently, Pearlstein Gallery at Drexel University (On the Banks of Sandy Creek). She has created copies of the work of Nina Hole (Himmel House), Lygia Pape (The Book of Creation), Chantel Akerman (Jeanne Dielman’s apartment) and Carl Andre (Funeral for Minimalism) as a way to talk with these artists about what they’ve made and their artistic practice.
Johnson is excited to be the current artist-in-residence at the Wharton Esherick Museum, which offers a rich opportunity for the type of exploration that fuels her practice. Johnson will spend her time exploring this architectural site and the unique geometry that is the product of a single creator’s highly idiosyncratic artistic practice. Her research process includes drawing, photography, architectural study and modeling, and other forms of close observation. Johnson holds an MFA in Ceramics from Tyler School of Art and Architecture.
Since winter 2025, Johnson has been visiting WEM’s campus to learn about the site’s history and Esherick’s biography, and to build physical knowledge of the built environment. Johnson’s work ties thematically to a significant anniversary for WEM; 2026 marks 100 years since Wharton Esherick broke ground on his renowned Studio. Johnson’s residency is one of many ways WEM will celebrate the Studio’s centennial year through a slate of exciting programming and exhibitions. We look forward to showing Johnson’s work onsite at WEM in an exhibition in the fall of 2026.
This residency, which is offered by invitation only, has culminated in varied ways including site-specific installations in the Esherick Studio, performances in the Kahn Workshop, and exhibitions in our Visitor Center. You can explore past AIR projects here. If you are interested in being considered for an invitation, please submit your information via this form.
Programs
Off the Shelf – Wharton Esherick Museum Book Club
Calling all Esherick fans and readers! Off the Shelf is an Esherick-like twist on the classic book club! It provides the opportunity for bookworms, Esherick fans, and local community members alike to explore Wharton Esherick’s legacy through the artist’s own richly stocked bookshelves, as well as recently published books that illuminate Esherick’s artistic networks and enduring legacy.
Meetings are held every six weeks and take place in Esherick’s 1956 Workshop and features an exclusive look into WEM’s special collections and archives to explore materials related to the month’s book. Discussions will be moderated by friend of the museum, WEM board member, and Director of West Chester University Special Collections, Ron McColl, and will feature occasional guest specialists.
The Margaret Esherick House
In 2024, the Wharton Esherick Museum launched a partnership with the owners of the Margaret Esherick House to offer tours and programs at this iconic modernist home on select dates throughout the year. Commissioned by Margaret Esherick, Wharton’s niece, the house was designed by world-renowned architect Louis Kahn and features an extraordinary kitchen conceived and installed by Wharton Esherick during the construction of the house. Recognizing the architectural importance of the house, the homeowners have generously collaborated with WEM on this ongoing series of select public events, sharing their private residence for the benefit of the museum and its supporters.
Partnerships
CraftNOW
Launched in 2014, CraftNOW Philadelphia unites the leading institutions and artists of Philadelphia’s craft community in a celebration of the city’s rich legacy of craft, its internationally-recognized contemporary craft scene, and its important role as an incubator for arts based in wood, clay, fiber, metal and glass. Through both creating and spotlighting events during the week of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, CraftNOW invites locals and visitors alike to explore Philadelphia’s innovations in the world of the handmade.
The Wharton Esherick Museum is a proud member of the consortium of individuals, galleries, museums, universities, retailers, and civic organizations who participate in CraftNOW each November. For details on CraftNOW events visit our event calendar.
